Episode 26 – Klone Wars & What Was Strymon Thinking?

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0:08 Welcome to the Pedal Collaborative podcast. We're so glad you're here. 0:22 Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's another week of the Pedal Collaborative Podcast. 0:26 I am Paul and I'm here with Alan. Hey, what's going on, Polly boy? 0:30 Dude, well, I'm back from the West Coast and you're on the West. Coast I'm on so I think we had like a 2 day overlap and then I I went out to LA. 0:39 Yeah, we flip. Flopped. 0:40 So we did we. Did, but hey. 0:42 It's so lonely. Last week I was. 0:44 So I know I know it. Your post on the channel made me laugh on Instagram. 0:50 I, I was, I was so, so unavailable to you. And but now I'm back and we can talk. 0:57 We can I think the worst was the worst was like since we share locations with each other, right, and I could tell exactly where you were and you know, at the the Orange County. 1:08 Wait, it wasn't no, gosh, I'm I'm getting all these convention. You're in Orange County. 1:13 I was in Las Vegas. Yeah, so you're the Vegas Convention Center. 1:16 But I'm like, oh, I know exactly where he is. And. 1:20 But not talking, just watching me on the on. The little yeah, but you. 1:23 But you would respond to my text like you would just, you know, emojis on my ridiculous things. I mean, people think that people think I say ridiculous things on the podcast and they should see 1:32 our text thread. Yes, we keep that private. 1:35 We do. Yes. 1:37 So yeah, you're saying it's March? Yeah, it's March, so it's been, you know, for me that means baseball season is in the air. 1:45 For those who don't know, I used to have a baseball podcast as well. Now. 1:49 Now, out of print or what? Out of air. 1:51 What do you say? I don't know. 1:52 I don't know. You say that. 1:53 Out of print. I like out of print. 1:55 Baseball season. And then most importantly for our channel, it is March Madness season and we have Clone Wars that we 2:01 mentioned last week now in full force, which by the time of people listening to this, there'll be two matchups out there. 2:09 Our first one's going right now, which is the KTR versus the Tumnus. And at the time of recording here, the KTR is winning by quite a bit. 2:19 So unless there is some dramatic fourth quarter AKA in the next 24 hours change, looks like the KTR is moving on. 2:27 I think Brian Wampler, you need to get your cronies all on Instagram. Come follow the Pedal Collaborative on on Instagram and. 2:36 Get them to vote for the Tumnus. Yeah, I will say so now that because I didn't want to color, but this one will be after that one's 2:42 done for the Yeah, I was surprised. So when I was making this in our I don't I can't We did talk about last week how I did it like with 2:49 a loop. I think I. 2:52 Well we recorded last weeks 2 weeks ago so. Yeah, so, but anyhow, recording the loops, it was all the same guitar riff, same dynamics. 2:59 It was just a loop into each pedal and I tried to match the settings and I kind of like lost the narrative in the process of like they all started to sound the same 'cause they are all the same 3:08 circuit. Right, right, right. 3:10 Now I will say giving it 'cause I recorded those like sometime in February, the first round here and then you edited them. 3:18 Listening back, there are actually like differences between them in particularly with the one that I now I can color because it's going to be done by the time this is out. 3:28 So the KTR is like thicker across the board than the Tumnus, which is interesting. Though if I listen to the two AB which I did when posting this, the KTR is almost a little muddy on 3:41 the power chords. But then that thickness makes the lead part sound awesome. 3:45 Whereas the fact that the Tumnus has a little bit more like highs and mids in it, the chords sound awesome, but then the lead part sound a little thin. 3:52 So I was like surprised to like sort of listen AB with my ears fresh. And I was like, oh, there is definitely subtle nuance to these. 4:01 I'm excited to. Hear more. 4:02 I think so many manufacturers that, that that make clones of the clon, I think they, they really try and capture a nuance of what what Bill Finnegan has done. 4:15 And generally this is a broad swath of a statement, but pedal companies will try and make it that, that that Clon buffered clean sound. 4:25 And that's kind of like, let's capture that as opposed to the Clon, which is the clon, right? It's all of it. 4:32 Yeah, it's got, it can be a mid drive, it can be a clean boost, it can go before or after other drives. 4:40 So yeah, I, I'm excited to see what people think. Overwhelmingly right now it's like 83% to 17%. 4:48 KTR yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, somebody posted on the on Instagram of of when they saw the brackets. 4:55 Because the brackets this is a. Heavyweight matchup. 4:56 The brackets are going to be live everybody, you know, they're live now, but they'll be, they'll be live all month, updating as we go. 5:04 But yeah, the, you know, the KTR versus the Tumnus was like a heavyweight matchup, which when I looked at it, I'm like really, I mean, it's AI mean the KTR is going to win. 5:13 I mean, that's, that's my expectation. Well, I tried to seed it a little bit like so obviously the KTR was like the one seed because it is 5:20 a clon, but it itself is technically the second iteration of the original big box. Clon right, right. 5:25 You get the Centaur, which is not. Really a clone since it's built by the same guy, but it is in and of itself. 5:30 So I was like, that's our one seed. If you're doing like the way the March Madness bracket works. 5:34 And then the Tumnus just 'cause it was newer, I like seeded lower 'cause it's like, it's not as like I think the Tumnus is even after the Voyager as far as like. 5:43 I think so. Yeah, 'cause the Voyager came out in like 2011, I wanna say. 5:47 Yeah, yeah. So yeah, our next match up I believe actually is which will be airing the same day as this episode. 5:54 I believe it's the Walrus shoot out of the Voyager Mark one versus the Mark 2. Oh, interesting. 5:59 So yes, we can't talk about, we can't, we can't color that one because it'll be voted at the same time as this episode. 6:04 I'm kind of, I love that you did it that way and. I think I wanted to just have a a walrus shoot out tomorrow. 6:10 So yeah, yeah, I aside from editing the videos when you were in Vegas, I've been hands off and I intentionally, I edited those with more. 6:22 So just like matching up the audio to what on the audio track to the video track and not as much listening to it because I didn't want to color myself it's. 6:33 Funny because there's not much to. I realized there's not much to match up because it's just a loop playing into a pedal. 6:37 Right, right. But. 6:39 Making sure that the time of it matches up so it doesn't loop weird and there's like a glitch or anything but. 6:43 Well, I noticed I, I think I told you I, I did like half of them and then realized I was cutting the audio too soon at the at the at the top and my software like they do, it doesn't auto fade in. 6:53 So I was like, oh, we're missing the very beginning. So I do, I can redo it anyway. 6:56 Oh yeah. So super excited. 6:58 OK, so how can people vote for this? Yeah, so the way it's set up, we had to figure this out 'cause there's just different rules between 7:06 Instagram and Facebook. Each one of these posts is an Instagram post where you will see the two pedal videos, swipe once to 7:13 see the second one. The first one will be there and then we have our Clone Wars logo after that. 7:18 So the each one will be a post each day and then as soon as we post the the two videos, there will be a story that corresponds where you can vote in a poll for either pedal. 7:30 So it's a 24 hour match. 24 hour voting. So from when it goes live till when we close it, it'll be there. 7:38 So and then our plan is, so today is recruiting, we're recording Tuesday, this will be out Wednesday, but we'll have one each day this week. 7:47 So by Friday we'll have our set up for next week. We'll know what our final 4 is. 7:51 Cool. So we can announce the final floor matchup on Friday afternoon. 7:55 We can say, hey, next week you'll see these, these matchups. So then next week, there's just two, it's the semis, right or? 8:02 Yep, 2 and then we'll have the final week will be the the championship so. OK, So what if we do next week? 8:11 Because it's only two. What if we do calendar the 11th and 13th Tuesday and Thursday? 8:18 Sure. Sounds great. 8:20 I like how we're making this up now again on podcast live. But yes, yeah, that, that way. 8:25 Hey, that way, everybody, they'll be like a thing from us every day of the week next week if we do it that way. 8:29 Yeah, oh, daylight savings on. Little Hey, it's a little daylight Savings St. a piece of content every. 8:35 Day you go, every day. But yeah, it's you have the fun joy of returning from the West Coast on daylight savings week, so 8:43 you'll. Have like. 8:44 Like a day and a half gap before the time changes in the way that makes you lose time too so. You so it's I'm OK, just censored myself. 8:56 I'm screwed like doubly because I, I'm taking the red eye home Thursday night. I, I hate doing all day travel. 9:02 So I, I red eye and which means I get home and when I get home my you know, rightly so. My partner's been home with the little ones all week. 9:14 Everyone's sick. I didn't tell you that dude. 9:17 Last Tuesday when I had like such a shitty day, yes. You everybody was sick. 9:22 Oh yeah, that we didn't. I didn't tell you. 9:23 Like I got home to the little one puking his guts out. Oh, no. 9:28 Yeah, well. And then? 9:30 You guys are in for a fun time. And then, and then when, you know, then everybody else in the house got sick the day before I left. 9:36 And I was about to like call my new boss whom had stayed in the US an extra week to do on boarding with me. 9:43 And I'm about to say, yo, dude, I gotta, I gotta bail. But so I have some not not not necessarily happy ones at the house right now. 9:52 And so you're gonna be coming home on a red eye into that situation. And a little time. 9:56 Changes straight. Into the to the little ones and then time change. 10:00 Pretty cool, very cool. So while we're talking about pretty cool things like this segue. 10:04 Let's pause and segue into an an an undiscussed 1. You and I are. 10:12 This is not this is a plug, but it's not a sponsored 1. It's a because we just have it. 10:16 We're actually both using sure mics now. To do I know. 10:20 Look at you. Yeah, sure, Mike. 10:21 Sure, Yeah 'cause you, you have the SM7B, right? And DB, the one with the D preamp built into it. 10:29 OK. Is that the cloud lifter? 10:31 Yeah, it's got the cloud left built into it, so it can go. I have it. 10:34 I think whatever the middle setting is of DB boost not the 28 it's like 28 and I don't know what the other one. 10:40 Is nice and. I've been that way since I got it. 10:42 Yeah, so I my day-to-day job is in the world of professional audio, so I have friends in high places everywhere. 10:50 So I called up a buddy of mine, not sure, and was like, hey, I need a new podcast Mike. And he's like, all right, we'll make it happen. 10:57 So I've got the new M7. Is it M7? 11:02 V7 MV 7, right? I know, I know what you have and you don't even know what's in front of you. 11:08 I'm like, see, I'm looking at it too. Well, you're looking at it. 11:11 Yeah, we might be recording video right now. I don't remember if I changed the settings or not. 11:14 I don't know. I don't know it doesn't matter but if if y'all like the sounds people people always ask like what 11:20 are good podcasting mics and the SM7DB and the MB 7 I I can say right now 11 minutes into the podcast I'm I'm a fan. 11:31 Yeah, it sounds you sound good. I will also make a weird pitch off of this related to guitar playing. 11:36 So I have this. Pedal, That's not what this podcast is about, Yeah. 11:39 It's not what it's about guitar playing. I'll go back to that. 11:41 Yes, you do sound good. And we're both unsure now. 11:44 So I actually love so the SM7DB. I had an SM7B previously and it was just like a if you can iterate you want to kind of thing. 11:53 I was like, yeah, I'd like the cloud lifter built in, but I actually love this mic for two reasons. One, it's great for podcasting. 11:59 It's sort of in some ways I think this is like the industry standard is the SM7DB or SM7B at least. I'm not sure everybody moved to the DB yet, but I have loved this microphone for years. 12:11 It's a great vocal mic. Michael Jackson used it all the time for vocals. 12:15 That's. A lot of people do. 12:16 Yeah, that, but like I think Michael Jackson, I think they say that on the sure what or they used to at least. 12:20 Yeah, I've. Heard of him? 12:22 Yeah, this guy, this small little artist, but I actually love if you turn off the cloud lifter and just use it as a dynamic mic like it was initially intended. 12:32 I love how this sounds on a cabinet when you're recording guitars. It has always been actually like my go to cabinet mic. 12:41 Now I have used the DPA ones, which I've used several different ones cabinet wise. But because of the fact that and sure in general sort of just has like a warmer sound to that mic as 12:53 like sort of part of the bump of the mic when you're recording like a a cabinet just direct into the grill. 13:01 I feel like the EQ curve of this gives it like body that I usually have to create in post and takes away some of the nasaliness of a guitar with like OverDrive bite. 13:11 So that's for for me, this mic has become like a catch all for like podcasting vocals, guitars doesn't really, I don't really use it for anything else, but I I do like using it on guitar cabs. 13:23 So. Well, I mean the DP as are great. 13:26 I mean I worked for them for eight years. So I've I've I've always been a big fan and just a totally different type of beast. 13:31 It's a more accurate it doesn't they don't really color anything so it well yeah as we've. Actually discussed since we both have some history with DPA, it's almost too accurate sometimes 13:45 where if you're like, aren't like, if you're, if you're a sloppy singer like myself, sometimes the DPA mic is like, it haunts you and you realize, you realize just how how bad you are at certain 13:55 things. And it's like, wow, I really like my plosives are like, I can't hide them at all. 13:59 They're just there. And oh, man, I need to like drink more water because you can hear how dry my throat is in this take. 0:00 So yeah. 14:06 So I mean, if you're wanting a very, very, very, very, very accurate capture, then and DP is a good way to go. 14:12 But I like. How we just went into mic pro audio. 14:14 I know. Let's let's, I mean, I'm looking at the time and and we're we're jamming. 14:19 Yeah, this is. A short This is a short episode. 14:21 This is like lunch. This is lunch break episode. 14:23 Lunch break. I love it. 14:24 Let's I wanna talk. No, I wanna talk. 14:27 Well, I was gonna say I made my pivot, but you cut me off to talk microphones. But my pivot was things that are really cool. 14:33 Sarcastic tone is what I was saying. OK, so we're both very confused about and we just we put a first sounds video out. 14:40 You have it at your house, I think. So we have on this podcast, I think before speculated about like, OK, Striemann came out with the 14:50 Big Sky MX last. Year, maybe last year, 2024. 2024 and so I think the general consensus amongst everybody was OK, 15:03 cool, there'll be a timeline redux at some point here. We got to have something weirdly, because the timeline actually is older than the Big Sky. 15:10 So it's interesting that the Big Sky MX came first, yes. And so we were sort of patiently waiting, I assuming like, hey, Striemann will have a new timeline 15:18 soon, it'll be out eventually. And they decided to throw a curveball and release a miniature L cap, basically, yeah. 15:29 A single head tape delay. What's it called? 15:31 The EC1 the. EC1. 15:33 Yeah, this so I, so I'll just, I'll go on record and say I don't understand the Striman miniseries at all. 15:43 The like the cloudburst. Wait, wait. 15:46 The Cloudburst. The Violet. 15:48 The ultraviolet. The Ultraviolet, the Brig, and now the EC1. 15:54 They're generally on average about 100 bucks or so less than they're like mid sized. I guess since these are these aren't really mini, but they're smaller than. 16:02 Their middle. Like the blue sky, the El Cap, the Riverside, etcetera. 16:08 I don't get it. I don't know who it's for 'cause it's like limited from the from the like the El cap. 16:15 The El Cap is a great tape delay. You can speak more because you played with this one. 16:21 I just, I don't know why they put this. I don't know what this, I don't know who this pedal is for. 16:25 So I think I think this pedal is for someone who wants that tape delay sound and that what they must have done. 16:32 Let's let me back up a bit. Let's look at the cloudburst. 16:34 The cloudburst was is the cloud algorithm from the Big Sky, which is arguably their most popular algorithm from the Big Sky. 16:42 So it makes sense in a way of like, hey, like, let's put this one algorithm, add a couple tweaks to it and make it a single switch stomp box. 16:52 Great, all right. Makes sense. 16:54 And then they did the Brig, and the Brig is like their vintage delay, like their deep what's. Weird though is they discontinued the Brigadier at the same time, yeah. 17:02 Which basically makes the Brig the Brigadier V2. Yeah, in some ways. 17:08 Yeah, in some ways. So that makes sense because they got rid of it and then is it? 17:12 Missing features though. They've just adjusted some of them, I think. 17:15 I don't I I haven't done a feature spec side to side. The Brig sounds great. 17:19 It does, but then they did the Ultraviolet, which is just strange. And I mean, but that's like a, that's just a, a genre of stuff that you and I don't necessarily go 17:30 into a lot. So the EC 1 is a stripped down version of the El cap, meaning that it's a single head tape delay. 17:39 You don't have multiple heads that you can adjust. It doesn't have any reverb, reverb and a lot fewer parameters that you can tweak, but you can adjust 17:49 the, the preamp boost. There's like a, there's like a switch that kind of gives like off low and high, but then also a 17:58 secondary function to make the preamp boost so that you can get OverDrive out of it. And in fact, there's a, there's a section on the on the 1st sounds video that is like, I crank it 18:07 all up and it's, it's pretty, it's pretty ballsy. But yeah, what the hell is driving? 18:14 Where is the timeline? I know it just it feels weird to put this out 'cause like so I think. 18:19 I don't remember when the El Cap V2 came out but I feel like. It was before the Big Sky MX. 18:25 But like we had, we don't. I didn't want another tape to. 18:27 I want the. I want the timeline MX or whatever. 18:29 They So here's my thought, 'cause, you know, going back to the Big Sky MXI, there was speculation largely pushed by me that they named it the MX to directly just slam the Meris Mercury X because, 18:44 you know. The naming convention is confusingly similar. 18:47 And and was it like what Terry's from mine 6, right. So like, no, sorry, Terry came from Striemann. 18:55 Like he, he helped found Striemann and then branched off and did Maris. So there's this. 19:01 I don't know if it's a feud or a war. Gino was very, very, very gracious and wouldn't really talk much about that. 19:06 But it's like I was expecting there to be like a timeline LX coming to kind of knock the LVX. Oh, to just right and also maximize confusion of Google searches. 19:16 But yeah, it's like that's a mess with SEO. I think the the difference though is like when the original timeline came out in March of whatever 19:24 year and the Big Sky came out in October. So there's like a six month wait between the two and it's been almost a year since the six guy MX 19:31 came out and there's no there's no talk. They just came out with the EC1, which is completely not anywhere close to what a, you know, a 19:42 second Gen. of the timeline would be. So I know people were expecting to come out at Nam in January of 25. 19:48 Nothing. We just get this little baby. 19:51 So yeah, it's it's so strange. I don't understand what's happening, but I it was AI mean. 19:56 It's not like the pedal sounds bad. I listen to. 19:58 Your no, Yeah. I mean, it sounds good, it's just not. 20:01 I don't I, I feel like in, in my opinion too, the price points of this. So I get, I actually get the cloud burst as we were talking through the ones I put out, I think I 20:08 get the cloud burst a little bit more than I understand this cause the cloud burst is like a much lower price point than a Big Sky or a Big Sky MX. 20:18 But for $100 four. $100 less than a Big Sky MX. Yeah, but the difference between this and an El Cap V2 is literally $100 and you get more features 20:28 out of for $100. I feel like it's like it's just a weird price point. 20:32 It's it's almost like some of the brand confusion you get out of all of the Squire and different Fender iterations where it's like, which one do I buy somewhat how Apple, how Apple has too many 20:43 iPhones now as well. It's like which one? 20:45 Do I buy 16 E? What is that? 20:47 Nothing. Yeah, yeah. 20:48 Well, I mean the so Striman has they released the VSTS of the dig and the L cap. So I don't know. 20:55 I actually haven't. Forgot about the dig, too. 20:57 There's another. Yeah. 20:58 Like there's so many delays that you could buy at the same size, but yeah. I I mean for if, if you're if you're crunched for space and you want the El cap sound, you can go 21:06 for the EC1. You can get close to it. 21:08 But if you don't have, if you don't have an issue with space, get the El cap. That's a much better. 21:13 Much better artificial position as the channel is spend the extra $100 you get more and getting the reverb. 21:18 Honestly the reverb on the El cap since I was just playing with the V2. Like such a good reverb. 21:22 Whenever that was sometime in February, yeah, it's a great pedal. I I love it. 21:26 There's also some things that the El Cap can do that the timeline can't do. Yeah, well, I think it was the initial, the initial draw to their two switch series is like, oh, you 21:35 can dive deeper into those particular. Yeah, like the blue sky, the blue sky is also like as far as the two switch, like that's the one 21:43 I've spent the most time with and keep. I've come back to it a few times because it's like it does some things in there that like you can 21:49 obviously do them in the Big Sky, but they're like specifically niche to the blue sky. And if I wanted to know which blue sky to get, get the V2. 21:57 Yeah, because having shimmer on its independent knob is definitely worthwhile. All right, let's wrap up here. 22:04 Just one more thing I want to just say since we've mentioned it in passing and I just feel like it's worth noting as a milestone on the channel. 22:10 So I texted you this weekend. You are wearing a color shirt right now. 22:15 But it's worth noting that I have finally become a big A Mercury X convert. Took a minute. 22:23 It took a minute and what it really what it really was was I actually spent some time because I have had the Mercury 7, the single pedal and I've been like, I don't need more. 22:30 I don't need more. But I also switch reverbs a lot. 22:34 Like I'll have like the Dark Star, I'll have this I bring in like, and I just suddenly realized because I've always been like, I don't need a big box reverb. 22:42 But I realized that like, because we've made so many emulations now and I could just have that on my pedal board and it has like a close enough approximation to like all the other ones I switch off and 22:52 on. And I'm, I made some of my presets I have for my Mercury 7 and that's what finally set me over the 22:58 edge. I made my own presets and I was like, OK, I'm not just playing with the stock ones or ones that 23:03 Allen created of like, I'm like spending some time with my own sounds. And when I discovered how much more I could tweak them, I was like, and honestly, you know what did 23:13 this? It was the Enzo X. 23:14 Because once I started playing with that, and now I'm sort of familiar with the editor because of having LVX for a minute, I decided to pull out the Mercury X. 23:21 And I was like, man, I should just spend some time and just like, instead of just like, oh, I can't, I have my sounds here, like just recreate them. 23:30 And so I'm a convert now. I have a big box reverb on my pedal board. 23:33 Right. And I looked. 23:34 Pretty cool, I look. Forward to seeing more presets done by Paul. 23:38 It's going to be. Great. 23:39 Well, there's going to be, I'll just say this, since we talked about Striemann in this episode, I put together a Striemann timeline version one since there isn't A2 preset pack of sort of my some of 23:52 these go back like 10:15. No, not not 15-10 years. 25 years. 23:57 No, actually, it might be 15 years a while, but just some of the ambient presets I use some of the like ones that actually we've put out in the LVX as well. 24:08 I've done a few presets that were like my Striemann versions. So some more March stuff to tease. 24:13 There you go. For this quick little lunch break episode, we got to wrap it up. 24:17 So we will see you all next week and pay attention to Clone Wars. Vote for your favorite clones as you listen and what you pull out, and keep collaborating your own. 24:27 I love it. Thanks Paul, it's so nice to see you and chat with you everyone. 24:30 Y'all stay saucy. I don't know what that means. 24:33 All right, Bye, peace. © 2025 Spotify AB Legal Privacy Cookies